#and as MUCH as i LOVE pmmm.....madoka who??

[mikoriin]

so, my boyfriend and i have completed utena 100%, anime and movie (i wanna reread the manga, but i already know i dont care for the manga as much as the anime, so we'll see) and watching this anime as an adult has given me a much newer and more complete understanding of what this anime is telling us.

these are some really really good videos talking about utena and its story and messages, i definitely think if you like utena then you should give them a watch!

[somnisweet]

Yall are sleeping on Mabayu, Mami and Nagisa found family and it makes me so sad...

Imagine Mabayu figuring out how to save Nagisa from her fate as a witch and inturn also saving Mami

However somewhere along the way she got lost beacuse she dosent know how she ended up with a loving girlfriend and a child to look after.

[deltaruiner]

walpurgis no kaiten is going to emotionally devestate me and il never recover i will never love any art after it again

[the-earth-priestess]

the thing about pmmm analyses that a lot of you people forget is that these girls are like. 14. forget the loops they're literally mentally all kids. it's not so much about selfishness or selflessness. you miss the point. you forget who the real enemy is: the incubators, for the deception and abuse.

AND ALSO. putting all my beef in one big post. i would argue even with all the christian allegories that madokami represents jesus/god but homura does not represent the devil.

why? because homura hates herself. she loathes her very existence. she fancies herself evil for pulling madokami from the sky but she doesn't want power.

the devil does not hate himself. the devil is proud. he loves himself, and only himself. he wants power. he wants to rule.

homura does not want to rule. she wants everyone she cares about -- that's right, all of the quintet, not just madoka -- to be happy. even if it means playing the bad guy. even if it means splintering. even it means she has to break herself and fall apart and become her beloved's enemy. homura treats herself as evil in the way an unreliable narrator would.

this is not about the devil and god. i'm not educated on the bible enough to know for sure what this is. but my best guess?

this is about jesus and judas.

doomed yaoi became doomed yuri.

could i make it any clearer?

they're not critiques on the christian god, the devil or blind faith. that's the worst, most tradcath reading of both the bible and pmmm i've ever heard.

homura and madoka are doomed by the narrative, not each other.

they're just trying to make things work in the way that aligns with their own youthful motives. the way that they love. throughout the series, madoka wants to save everyone and had the power to. homura wants to save everyone and only had the power to increase madoka's potential.

that is the difference between them.

remember? homura called herself a demon. demons are different from the devil himself, and yeah, girl needs an exorcism from her girlfriend.

if you call homura and madoka selfish or selfless you're missing the point and actually, you're adhering to reductive readings of not just the media but how you may be approaching mentally ill kids too. art imitates life and all that.

[atamascolily]

There is a tendency I see in PMMM analyses and discussions to treat the witches simply as monsters that can be overcome with sufficient force regardless of other circumstances--and thus Homura's failure to ever win against Walpurgisnacht on her own terms is something that could be easily fixed with more firepower and different tactics. And while there's nothing wrong with this interpretation, it's not one that particularly interests me, either.

What I like about PMMM and what makes it so engaging for me, is that it can be read on multiple levels--both as a literal journey and as a symbolic one. In-universe, witches are the shadow selves of magical girls; is it really so surprising that they also serve as narrative foils to those who face them, thus making victory or defeat as much of a character issue as a tactical one?

It is not a coincidence that Mami Tomoe, a girl who was forced to grow up too fast and who could have wished to save her dying parents but didn't, meets her end at the hand of a particularly childish and immature witch, a lumpen, misshapen doll that transforms into a clown--a girl who never grew up, who could have wished to save her dying parent but didn't. Mami, an experienced veteran who wiped the floor with the Rose Witch and her familiars earlier, is completely caught off-guard and is eaten alive by a witch who embodies all of the issues she herself struggles with and has yet to overcome within herself.

Yes, Mami was careless and overconfident, which led to her doom--but she had also fulfilled her role of introducing Madoka to the world of magical girls. On a narrative level, her death was necessary--not only to free Madoka from her impulsive promise to become a magical girl too early in the story, before she'd learned all the facts and could make a fully informed decision, but also to teach Madoka one final, horrific lesson about what life as a magical girl is really like.

This is not to say that AUs where Mami survives are wrong or missing the point--I've written them myself and I love them! (It helps that Mami's survival is usually the result of someone else's interference, not something she accomplishes on her own.) Nor do I mean to suggest that Mami's death is a moral failing on her part--merely that I think that Charlotte represents Mami's own particular brand of kryptonite at that particular point in her life, one she might have been able to survive if she had been able to move beyond the psychological issues hobbling her.

Meanwhile, Homura is able to easily defeat Charlotte, because metaphorically she's moved beyond the childish worldview that Mami is still stuck in. From that same symbolic perspective, it's this relative level of maturity, as much as her time stop and pipe bombs, that allows her to win.

Likewise, it is not an accident that the next witch Madoka encounters is one that specializes in extracting the memories of its victims, trapping Madoka in a spinning carousel as she is tormented by her own grief and guilty conscience over Mami's death. She is freed by Sayaka, who has moved beyond such angst by her decision to take on Mami's role as an idealized magical girl protector. Later on, Sayaka's descent into dualistic thinking is symbolized by her fight against a witch whose world is literally black and white--whom Sayaka defeats, but only at the cost of pushing herself dangerously to her limits.

As with Mami, Sayaka's death is directly tied to her own psychological issues--in this case, by her incredibly strict rules about how magical girls should behave and her refusal to cut herself any slack whatsoever. Her metaphorical self-denial results in literal self-denial, and her death as a magical girl and rebirth as a witch.

Then we come to Walpurgisnacht, a witch made of cogs and gears--the one witch Homura cannot beat, no matter what she does. Homura is stuck in her loops, unable to imagine a future beyond them, increasingly isolated from any meaningful connections or relationships--Walpurgisnacht may be the "fool that spins in a circle", but so is Homura. The inside mirrors the outside; when we watch Homura fight against Walpurgisnacht, we are also watching Homura's struggle with herself. Unlike Mami and Sayaka, Homura's magic allows her to fight this battle over and over again--again and again she is forced to retreat and start over, unsatisfied with the results and determined to do better next time. She doesn't die, but she doesn't win, either--instead, she's locked into perpetual stalemate with no end.

Madoka, however, is able to see beyond the vicious cycle represented by Walpurgisnacht and thus easily and repeatedly defeats an enemy that Homura cannot, regardless of her relative power levels in any given timeline. It's probably too simplistic to say that hope triumphs over despair--and yet, that's exactly what happens, every single time. Homura has numbed herself through repeated exposure to where she no longer feels hope or despair, thus existing in perpetual stasis with her purpose the only thing driving her. Paradoxically, the one thing she needs to do to win is the one thing she cannot do--and the thing that Madoka can do all too easily.

(This is not to say that Madoka doesn't have her own issues--she does!--just that her issues are different from Homura's, meaning she's not tripped up by this particular obstacle in the same way that Homura is. And it's not that Homura's struggles were pointless--they were what allowed Madoka to get to point where she had both the power and the knowledge that she could save everyone, including Homura.)

Homura's final battle with Walpurgisnacht shows Homura going to insane lengths, including a wall of C-4 explosives inside a refinery, a flaming oil tanker, and a submarine with Type 88 Surface-to-Ship missiles--none of which has any lasting effect on Walpurgisnacht whatsoever. That episode goes to great lengths to show that Homura's approach to fighting Walpurgisnacht fundamentally isn't working; I don't think adding more nukes would help.

The one time Homura gets the closest to her happy ending is the one timeline where she and Madoka fight and fall together--the one timeline where they are shown as equals, and the one where they debate becoming witches together and destroying the whole world before Madoka thinks better of it. This is also not a coincidence. If there is ever to be a truly happy end to this franchise--or an end at all--Homura and Madoka must be equal and willing partners, not one protecting/sacrificing themself for the other again and again. It is also likely that they will remake the universe in the process, through the combined power of their mutual wish.

[It also wouldn't surprise me if that line foreshadowed future plot elements--after all, Madoka technically became a witch in the final episode of the TV series (she got better, thanks to the nature of her wish), and so did Homura in Rebellion--but we shall see if the series ever follows up on this.]

This is why I'm so excited that Walpurgis no Kaiten seems to be laying the groundwork for Homura creating her own enemies and her greatest enemy being herself--once again, making the metaphorical literal. I'm excited about the prospect of Homura getting a do-over with Walpurgisnacht, which would represent a chance for her to confront her narrative foil one more time, and show us how her character has changed. Though it may play out on a larger stage, the real battle will be inside Homura's mind and heart--and, I would argue, always has been. The only way the outcome will change--the only way we can move beyond what's been and into something new--is if/when she changes.

I want to be clear that there's absolutely nothing wrong with the strictly literal interpretation of witches, and I think people should write what they want to write; if that's the story you want to tell, then go for it! For me, however, I find it far more compelling--not to mention richer and truer--if the actions and words on-screen correspond to the characters' emotional and psychological journeys, and there's no question that this preference how I interpret media in general, and PMMM in particular. And it's not that I think Homura couldn't defeat Walpurgisnacht in an AU scenario--merely that any story where she achieves this victory without changing in any way or addressing her own psychological issues in some fashion removes exactly the elements that drew me to this series in the first place.

[muffinrecord]

Also I'm a little harsh on Magia Record's storyline being a little... soft? On the hostilities between characters. But I also understand why things are resolved the way they are.

Magia Record is ultimately a story about characters coming together and saving each other. It's baked into the gameplay-- the connect was a big feature that even made its way into the anime.

You can tell the vibe of the game just by comparing it to the anime in fact. In the anime, a ton of characters die. Iroha is unable to save Kuroe, Mifuyu and Momoko have to die as penance in exchange for saving the ones they mislead, Homura fails to save Madoka (and possibly other PMMM original characters) and rewinds time, Ui dies, Touka dies, Nemu dies. Alina dies. Alina's interactions with Karin amount to mostly fan teasing. We see magical girls in the background who are working together against Walpy, but Kanagi is barely present, which means she doesn't have her moments of grouping up with Yachiyo (and all that represents for the east versus west conflicts).

In the anime, the girls fail.

In the game, they succeed. Characters like Mifuyu, who lead others astray, try to kill themselves for redemption but are prevented from doing so because her friends love her and want her to stay with them. Kanagi gets to work with Yachiyo, showing that they have bonds and similarities beyond their differences. Momoko's group never fractures and joins the Wings of Magius, so their friendship continues to keep them propped up and saved. Kuroe is introduced late in the game but she obviously survives and learns to live on. Homura gets to save Madoka and stay her Glasses self, continuing to deepen her friendships with the rest of the gang. Ui, Touka, and Nemu get to be friends again. Touka and Nemu are put on trial but still get to work to try and save humanity. Alina fails to kill people and has Karin more prominently present to remind you of her softer sides, Nemu fails to get herself killed, and blah blah blah, you get my point. This isn't even getting into arc 2, where characters start off very hostile to everyone but smooth at towards the end.

I've got my own personal dislikes of how conflict ends in Magia Record sometimes-- I feel like it takes the easy way out and ignores more interesting routes. I think ending a story so that everyone gets along can be boring and lazy sometimes.

At the same time, I do respect the writing direction for it. I think there's value in saying that everyone (or damn near everyone) can be saved, that people ultimately want to help each other. People want to connect with other people. Friendship can save all. Your friend might be going down a dark path but you can save them through the power of subtextual yuri companionship, compassion, and understanding.

Like, it's a fantasy because you shouldn't be burning yourself to help others, but also fantasy isn't always bad. Sometimes it's nice to have stories where things work out for the better.

I do think though this is why the darker stories in the game really stand out as fan-favorites. Glasses Homura failing to save Kuro is such a gut punch because it feels like that should be impossible in the world of Magia Record, where you can march into a cult and make the leaders into good guys again. Mikoto's pain and suffering stands out because Hanna is never coming back and Mikoto isn't going to get better again. Ryo and Ikumi stay dead. Jun stays dead. Sakuya stays dead. They don't come back.

I'd wager that one reason the story "Girls in the Hood" and its follow up "Dependence Blue" are so popular (besides good writing) is because the fantasy fails and has painfully realistic outcomes in it. Jun isn't able to prevent Mitsune from contracting, despite trying her best to show that you don't need magic to be strong. The two struggle with communicating with each other, despite how much they care for one another. And Jun dies without their feelings being resolved. In a story where so many characters get happy endings (or learn to accept their circumstances), stories like this stick out and have a painful resonance.

I'm meandering again, but yeah. I wish Magia Record was more brave with its writing and that it wouldn't chicken out on pursing conflict at the expense of making characters unlikeable, but I also feel like that wasn't what it wanted to do either. We can say that it's because they wanted to keep their characters as loveable as possible given that it's a gacha and they need to market it to you, but it's also just a storytelling direction that they preferred at the end of the day. I don't have a link but I remember hearing that the writers wanted to keep the game light, that they didn't want people to log in and feel miserable playing a phone game (I could be very badly remembering this).

And you know what, sometimes that kind of cozy friendship-defies-all was very comforting. I dunno. Yeah.

[cowboymantis]

🚦🚦🚦TRAFFICBLR I HAVE SUCH GOOD SHOWS FOR YOU THAT GIVE THE SAME BRAINROT AS THE LIFE SERIES 🚦🚦🚦

I've been meaning to do this post for so long now, but last Wild Life session being everyone having superpowers finally gave me the motivation-

Have you ever heard of Kamen Rider? No? Now you have. Kamen Rider is a Tokusatsu (Japanese practical effect focused genre, in the case of Kamen Rider it's a superhero-type Toku) show that has existed since 1971, but gets new seasons with new characters/worlds/stories every time.

And every now and then, there are seasons that just give me those brainworms like the Life Series does. And I need to share with you the seasons that I especially enjoyed as a Life Series fan 🥺 I don't think there's much overlap in the fandoms, because they're such different ones, but trust me on this one.

Do you like...

- death games

- time loops

- ever repeating death games in time loops

- characters being forced only to watch while their friends are continuously killing each other in every timeline

- people being silly :3

- absolute insanely intense homoerotic drama (it's one of those things I think both fandoms enjoy a lot from what I've seen 🧍‍♂️)

- watchers and eye-themed admins making sure the game is going as planned

- winners and/or last man standing of a battle royale type game never really winning because it will all repeat anyway and they have to compete and fight strangers and friends all over again

- everyone dying, no one ever really winning in this inescapable fight

... then you will love several Kamen Rider seasons! I'm being so vague and try not to say which season is which of those things named. But some also fit multiple. Those seasons I present first all have a very similar theme, like the Life Series.

Kamen Rider Ryuki, Kamen Rider Blade, Kamen Rider Geats, Kamen Rider Gaim.

Fun fact! Any Madoka Magica fans here? The creator of it loved Kamen Rider Ryuki so much, it was one of his main inspirations for Madoka Magica. (Very noticable... /pos) And after that he also created a Kamen Rider season, and that is Gaim. So if you love PMMM like me, oh you will be eating GOOD with those seasons!!

Also, some random imagery from Geats. The command buckle forms (pictured on the left), I just put out of fun bc they have Hotguy or Gigacorp colours, which Hermitcraft fans will be very familiar with 😌

And on the right, one of my points from earlier, eye-themed admins. Not really a spoiler to just tell you that straight up, don't worry. Also I guess you could say at one point there's something similar to the boogey..??

Anyway, the picture on the bottom... Do I even have to say anything? DO I??? WATCHER MOMENT??

I don't have anything to show for Ryuki, Blade and Gaim, I think? Or rather, nothing that wouldn't be too spoilery. Those are seasons that fr you just need to take in and take over your life and give you brainworms.

One thing I can say about them is that they have forever changed my brain chemistry and I think about them daily and whenever I think of them I want to scream . Real

OH UHH yeah Ryuki has a character named Ren wow! So many similarities! Well, actually, I guess I need to show you Shinji, the protagonist. Because if you love the silly idiots of the Life Series, you will love him too. One of my favs ever and he's so so silly. So stupid. Such an idiot. Everyone hates him and wants him dead and he just wants to make frens... His only crime was being too silly...

Now, there are two more seasons I want to recommend.

Kamen Rider OOO, Kamen Rider Ex-Aid.

Okay, this is a bit shorter, so first starting off with Ex-Aid. Another season I love SOSOSO much. Anyway, it is videogame themed yippie!! And there's an insane game master with a god complex whee!! Also uh... The newest Wild Life episode reminded me . So much. Of Ex-Aid. Because of the zombies. Since there is a character here who basically becomes a zombie and continuously dies in the silliest ways only to literally respawn again. So yeag.

Another thing, I love suit designs that, and I genuinely don't know if this was intentional, look like they have moustaches 😭

This season also has my #1 fav Kamen Rider character!! :3 ONCE AGAIN last Wild Life session, I had to think about this character too. Because of Bdubs powers...

Anyway.

NOWWW... KAMEN RIDER OOO...

One of the funniest and most dramatic and gayest seasons of Kamen Rider fr. I love it so much.

Did you pay attention to the OOO poster? The colours? Yeah, people who love Kamen Rider OOO in the fandom will often put a 🚦in their bio or name. Just like a certain other fandom right...

Funnily enough, ever since I've gotten into Kamen Rider a while back, there's often fanart where I can't tell at first if it is OOO or Life Series fanart. Yeah. Shall I show you why this might be the case? Let me pick some random Kamen Rider OOO screenshots:

Those two idiots are LITERALLY desert duo. Like. I don't know what to tell you. It's just insane 😭

And I know, scarian is a super popular ship (personally I don't ship it, I absolutely love their silly dynamics tho and all), and so are them!!!

We got Ankh, a so-called Greeed, being the angry blonde red-themed bird sidekick of the main character Eiji's silly superhero character (Calling it superhero is always so weird- but it's kinda hard talking too Toku-y for people new to it), who is maybe also secretly a little bit messed up. They are the ultimate doomed yaoi too, if you like that lmao? 😭 I'M PULLING ALL THE STRINGS TO GET MORE PEOPLE INTO KAMEN RIDER!!!

On top of that, even with all the drama happening later on in OOO, it has to be one of, if not the funniest season, at least to me!!

There's so much sillyness happening and I just love it..

Also this famous scene:

SO WHAT TO YOU SAY DO YOU DEFINETLY ABSOLUTELY WANT TO WATCH KAMEN RIDER NOW?? GOOD!!

((Sidenote. If you do decide to and are a bit clueless as to where to watch, you can always ask me what who said that nothing suspicious going on here Toei assassins-))

[samble-movedd]

madohomu isn't "toxic".

madohomu isn't "abusive".

the behaviors they exhibit that are labeled this way only seem such because they are out of context.

for example. pre-rebellion, there were "homura antis" who called homura an abuser (no, i am not making this up, check out @/magicalgirlfanproblems' pmmm tags) for things like her yelling at madoka. out of context, ofc this sounds mean and malicious. but in context, 99% of the time she says something "mean" to madoka in the main series or raises her voice is because madoka is about to make a literal canon deal with the devil that would lead to her dying in horrifying ways. it's the same way you shouldn't normally yell at a child, but yelling "don't touch that!" in panic if they're about to touch a hot stove makes sense and isn't "bad" with the context.

during and post-rebellion, this "homura is an evil abuser, madohomu is toxic" issue only got worse, because again, without context, homura seems to be controlling and malicious.

...but the "proof" that's used to prove this, again, lacks context.

"homura forces madoka out of godhood against her will". yes. but she is doing this because when she previously spoke to madoka (who had her memories of being a goddess gone, unbeknownst to homura), madoka said that being such would distress her, and she couldn't imagine bearing it. that she wouldn't ever want to do this. ofc, memories restored madoka wanted to stay a goddess, but homura didn't know this — it's also heavily implied that what she said while without memories were her true thoughts on the matter, and any "no, i love doing it" statement is mostly posturing.

related to this is the plot point a lot of people also miss, where being this goddess figure puts madoka in constant danger of being captured or controlled by the incubators, a species that canonically have caused the deaths of billions of children, and who do not care about human morals regarding this. it's openly stated that, even if homura had allowed madoka to save her and not acted, the incubators would have just done the same labyrinth experiment with literally any other magical girl they could get their hands on, over and over, until they were able to end up controlling madoka. but even them just seeing her towards the end of rebellion was a massive danger, as they now know madoka is a person and not just a concept, and can be manipulated and caught.

homura's new world is also often used as "proof" homura is controlling and evil. but...her "new world" is one where all her friends are happy, and everyone has a nice time except her. madoka has her family and friends. mami isn't alone, because she has bebe/nagisa. nagisa, a girl she knew for maybe a week and had no prior connections with, is alive, and has a happy life with mami. kyoko and sayaka live together so that sayaka isn't an implied latchkey kid, and kyoko isn't constantly alone and isolated anymore.

homura did not have to do these things. if she just wanted madoka safe, she could have put her in a lonely world with literally no one else. homura doesn't even much like sayaka — she could have easily erased sayaka from the world, or made her miserable. but she doesn't do these things. she genuinely wants her friends (especially madoka) to be happy.

"but the new world is dangerous and unstable, homura is also putting madoka into danger!" madoka's world is also unstable, if you really want to split hairs. the big danger with homura's is someone (esp madoka) could remember the previous world and their roles in it. madoka's world...had homura fully remembering madoka and the previous world, even though this isn't meant to be possible. madoka's brother also remembered her on some level. if you want to get super technical, madoka also made an unstable world that put people in danger, as homura remembering madoka directly led to the incubators knowing about madoka and the previous witch system.

this isn't even going into the background. homura doesn't act cold because she's bored and wants to, she's seen her friends die literally a hundred times or more in various horrifying ways. if you're going to complain about her personality while ignoring canon and context, you really need to channel every single pmmm character hate post i saw from the 2010s and hate all of them, because none of them are as flawless as people seem to want homura to be. madoka cries a lot and has a tendency to do things without thinking. sayaka "died over a dumb crush" if you really want to emulate posts from 2015. mami is a useless character only there for shock value. kyoko is an overly aggressive weirdo. if you're going to hold the same beliefs about homura as people did a decade ago, you can't be this choosey. and yet 99% of modern character hate for pmmm nowadays is directly almost solely at homura, as though she's the only flawed character in the show.

there are still posts made in this very year about this. here's one my mutual @angelroute found (yes, posted in 2024):

and not only is it deeply ironic (seeing this person had a madoka icon while being so hateful), ignorant of canon (with being a magical girl portrayed as a positive in the show where it leads to dying horrifically), and weirdly vindictive (op is thirty and this mad at a fictitious middle schooler), but it shows how strange and backwards 90% of "anti homura" arguments are at their core. they're perfectly fine spitting on canon and all context to call homura and homura alone an evil character while covering their ears to anything that may suggest otherwise.

ive seen homura called a rapist and a predator, though there's nothing even remotely sexual in canon and nothing that ever even implies this is a possibility. homura being a creep is/was a major fanon trope. homura being an abuser as a fanon belief is so prevalent that people believe it when most of canon points to the opposite —

she's not actually evil or abusive, she's a child who never got help for trauma, and genuinely believes she's following what her best friend would have wanted. she's not doing what she does in rebellion because she got bored and decided she just wanted to control madoka, she is trying to protect her and is misguided from what memory-less madoka said, so believes she's following madoka's actual desires.

she's not evil. she needed help desperately and never got it, and half the fandom falls for the facade of "im sick and twisted" put up by a middle schooler.

[thequietkid-moonie]

hello, I’d like to request romantic scenarios about Madoka, Sayaka, Mami, & Homura from PMMM with a S/O who has an intense hero/savior complex to the point that they casually disregard their own (regarding the S/O) needs and health

S/O with superhero syndrome

[ HEADCANONS ] [ Madoka, Sayaka, Mami Homura ]

[ Puella Magi Madoka Magica ]

What an interesting request! I have bad memories about wanting to help too much people, anyways this was quite interesting to write so i hope you enjoy it! Thanks for requesting it!

Kamame Madoka

Madoka is a really caring and loving girlfriend, she doesn't feel like she is enough and yet always wants to help, thats why she admired a lot your willingness and desire to help others! She wishes she could be as she could be as brave as you are but she just can't bring herself to do so, so she just sees you be a hero!

At first Madoka didn't thought much about your attitude, just the admiration for it, she even used to compliment a lot your strenght and bravery, she used to see it as something so admirable and innocent to the point that she even started to carry around a little first kit aid for whenever you end up injuring yourself a little, she hates when it happens but she doesn't want to stop you, so she used to just try to help as best as she can

It take a long time for Madoka to notice that your wish to help it can scale to unhealthy limits, it isn't that she didn't payed attention to you is just that she refused to aknowledge that you were getting into extremes by it, she wanted to believe so hard that you were fine and that you were doing fine because she didn't liked the idea of you being hurt

Even despite realicing that your behavior is quite unhealthy because it is putting your comfort and safety at risk, Madoka still will need some time before being able to say anything about it, Madoka is worried and even scare about you and your safety, the posibility of something happening to you doesn't let her sleep at night but she doesn't want to make you upset or offend you by accident when asking you about it

Madoka doesn't want to tell anyone about this for how serious it is but at the same time knows that it may be the best, so she end up telling her friends in hopes that they give her a good advice to how to deal with all of this, or at least to how gain the courage to confront you about it

When Madoka finally is able to confront you about it she emphasizes how worried she is for you but also how willing she is to help you, she loves you so she obviously will worry about you, she doesn't want you to get hurt and there is no need for you to put your life at risk, you two can find a way to help others without putting your own life in such risk

Madoka doesn't want to be pushy but she will be watching over you for the next days because she is to tense and worried, now that she could finally tell you her worries now she is a little bit more worried about what you would do and how you will react, now she is more frecuently remembering you how you don't need to go to the extreme to helping others, you matter just as much as anyone else

Sayaka Miki

Sayaka is a incredibly caring person, specially towards her partner, she worries way too much for the person she loves but normally she tries to hide it. Still, at first, once Sayaka noticed how much you want to help others she even felt quite flattered, she imediatly take it as something good and always talked about this with a lot of admiration

Sayaka used to ask you stories about what you have done to help others, just like if you were a superhero, always giving you a lot of compliments and bragging about your bravery, about how selfless and admirable you are! Sayaka seems to always have something positive to say about your attitude, what, at the end, only end up feeding your need to help other

It take a while for Sayaka to finally understand how unhealthy this actually is, she tries to don't accept it because she doesn't like the idea of you putting yourself in danger just to help others, and deep down she also feels quite guilt for how much she always said that it was something good

It will take her a while to accept it and even more to try to talk to you about it, she wants let you know that forgetting your health isn't good at all, but she has a lot of troubles when trying to say it, she can't find the right words to tell you because she doesn't want to start an argument by accidentally upseting you or even offending you

Sayaka tries by indirect ways first, is undeniable and quite obvious how worried and anxious she is feeling but if you ever try to ask her (specially if you offer her help) she panic a little and quickly tries to brush it off, saying that she is fine and everything is fine while trying her hardest to laugh

Sayaka will spend quite a while time ranting to her friends about all of this, about how this is a problem for you and you can't just see it! about how you had forgot about yourself just to help others again! about how angry she is about this whole situation (but not exactly to you, she doesn't even know to what or who she is angry at this point), it continuos until her friends help her gaing the courage to talk with you about it

She will be way too anxious while confronting you, spitting all her worries without being able to stop herself, talking no-stop until she can't talk anymore, until she run out of breath and now is just embarrassed about all that she had said. If you get mad or even offended she kinda understand and even apologize for making you feel that way but not for confronting you, but if you seem affected by her words she will have the impulse to apologize, but will only swallow and ask you if you are alright

After finally confronting you and making sure you two are still in good terms she will be actively taking care of you, making sure you never forget about yourself even if she has to do it herself

Mami Tomoe

Mami is a really caring and loving girlfriend, however she still finds quite hilarious that you two actively fight for help other in diferent ways and for diferent reasons, she does it because she wanted to survive and because is her job while you do it because is almost as if you need it, because you want to be the hero of someone

Honestly, at the start Mami support you in this, she finds more honorable your reasons to fight (or at least at the start) in comparation to hers but she doesn't feel bad about it, in reality she feels like she can understand you to some extent on how exhausting it can be

It doesn't take much time before Mami realice that your mindset and the reason of why you want to help others isn't exactly healthy or even purely altruistic, and, honestly, is something that worries her too much, you and her friends are the only thing that makes her life still have a meaning, is what gives her reasons to keep fighting with dignity and honor, so knowing that you put your life in danger just to help other makes her feel anxious and troubled (specially if you are not a magical girl and don't have real reasons to put your life at risk the way you do)

Just as she quickly notices your unhealthy behavior it doesn't take much time for Mami to confront you about it neither, but she does is so casually and smooth that you won't feel the pressure of being confronted, Mami ask you why do you feel this need and since when you were doing this just because she wants to help you out, and she leaves clear that this is unhealthy but she will try her best to help you, as well she reasures you that you and you alone are more than enough, you don't need to prove anything to anyone nor win others respect or admiration by doing all of this

Mami tent to give you compliments quite often along with a soft teasing, all wholesome fun, even after understanding your unhealthy behavior, although she does it along with a gentle remainder of not pushing yourself to your limits or force you to continue

Mami doesn't normally shows directly how worried she is for you, she does it indirectly by taking care of you and making sure you don't push yourself to the limits to help others, she makes sure you have proper rest and meals, she is there for you everytime she can and helps you help other people or even restrains you from even offering help when she thinks it has being too much, but she always does it with comforting words, not forcing you but trying to convince you, reminding you that this is unhealthy and there is no need

Akemi Homura

For Homura her partner is irreplaceable and incomparable, she loves with intensity and is completely loyal to those feelings, Homura had problems expressing herself after all the problems she had to endure but she doesn't hesitant when it comes to her partner, specially with their safety

As much as Homura love you she despises that need you have of helping others, she doesn't like it at all and make her anxious, is the kind of thing that keeps her awake at night because she just can't stop feeling troubled by the idea a of you putting your own comfort and health under others, specially if those are people you don't even know

Homura hates it with all her being because is something threating for your safety, she doesn't understand why would you want to do something like that anyways, for her the most important thing in the world is you, and the fact that you put yourself under anyone else is eating her alive

The more you try to help other and putting yourself down by consequence the more angry and anxious she feels, Homura want to keep you safe but you being reckless by the excuse of helping others is making it too difficult! At that point Homura doesn't even try to hide how much she despises that habit of yours, expressing how stupid it is to risk your life in that way for people you don't even care about

Is probably that you two end up having some arguments about it, and even when Homura hates fighting with you she won't stop until you understand her point of view, she will have the same argument over and over again if that is what you need to finally listen to her

The more you insist on putting your life at risk by forgetting about you just to help others the more anxious and emotional she gets, there are high chances that she end up crying, begging you to stop doing this to yourself because is not healthy in the slighest, is just consuming your and her life (not that she particulary cares about her own)

Homura will be willing to acompany you and help you with your little journey to help others if you want, if that takes for you to stop putting yourself under others, but she will just do it for you to stop being so reckless and stop putting your life at risk, she won't really be kind to anyone she helps, she does it for you not for them

In this case she will be even angrier and even more at the edge whenever Kubey came into the picture, she knows that you would accept without thinking much and she can't let that happen, so she will grow even more protective over you. As well, she will try to take care of you at the best of her habilities, looking after you and paying close attention to make sure you aren't neglecting yourself

[wyfy-meltdown]

"As much as I wish for the happiness of someone, someone else must be equally cursed."

This is Sayaka's most icon line (next to "I won't regret anything!") and for good reason. It describes herself, but also the entire concept of "magical girls".

Kyuubey grants the wishes, and in return, a girl becomes cursed becoming a magical girl. Every character (*at least in pmmm, not magia record) becomes cursed at the expense of helping someone else.

Madoka(mi) ends the curse for all magical girls and her friends, but she and Homura becomes the most cursed of all. Madokami bears the weight of the whole universe on her shoulders; Homura's love made her into an object of worship.

Homura ends Madokami's reign (therefore un-cursing Madoka) at the expense of becoming more cursed herself, and cursing the rest of magical girls. Homura losses herself, her mind, and Madoka all for the sake of allowing Madoka to become human again. She can't interact with Madoka, but she can watch her inside her gilded cage; and that's "all" Homura needs

Sayaka is the most poignant example of this; with her "role" being to showcase the ultimate curse of all magical girls. She's determined to make a "selfless" wish (disguising her true "selfish" desires) despite how much Mami warns her against it. Sayaka losses the control she wanted to gain, and losses her mind. Mami's facade left such an impact on her she's dedicated herself to portraying herself as the "perfect magical girl" that never existed nor could exist in the first place. She becomes more cursed bearing the curse Mami left for her, and pushing away the one person who could help her because Kyoko doesn't line up with Sayaka's deluded image of how a magical girl should be. Sayaka curses the people around her up until her curse is ended by Kyoko.

Kyoko makes the most selfless wish of them all, and the most people become cursed as a result. The ones she loved and wished for the sake of in a genuinely selfless way had enjoyed her wish for a while, until the wish could not longer protect them. Kyoko's whole family and life went up in flames as a direct consequence of her wish; because of that, she's decided to live only for herself because she understands best the curse that comes with selflessness; the curse that comes with love. I don't know if it's directly confirmed when Kyoko leaves Mami, but I theorize it was shortly after the death of Kyoko's family; the time Kyoko lost her selfless heart and could not longer connect with others as a result. Kyoko stays that way until Sayaka; Sayaka is the antithesis of Kyoko and yet the same as her. Kyoko relieves the curse on herself and Sayaka with their deaths; the only way to end the curse of a magical girl.

Mami's wish is the most selfish (*objectively) and so the fewest people are cursed (one could even argue that the only one cursed by Mami's wish was Mami herself). Mami's curse is a "self-fufilling prophecy" of sorts where she isolates herself and fully dedicates herself to being a magical girl from the fear that she'll end up alone again and/or that anyone she comes into contact will suffer/die. In a sense, this is true, as the rest of the Holy Quintet do in fact suffer, die, become witches, and so on. Mami didn't even really get to make a wish; she simply had an opportunity to survive and took it, and was forced to suffer as a magical girl because of it. The impact she leaves on Sayaka and her trying to convince Madoka to become a magical girl are curses she imposes without knowing the extent of her actions, nor that her actions are in any way bad; she's gotten swept up by the lies of the incubators and has become someone who curses as a result.

Nagisa is an interesting case because she deliberately curses herself and the people around her. She knows that she COULD wish to save her mom, but prefers the idea of making her mom indulge in her revenge: the world's tastiest cheesecake. The cheesecake Nagisa wished for instead of her mother's health. She becomes a magical girl, with the knowledge she'll never not be a magical girl again, all for the sake of revenge.

[its-gettin-weird]

"I want to be an admirable person. Like Mother Fortuna, who’s my role model. Or Geuse, who’s so kind and strong. Like Archi, who kept smiling until the very end, just so I wouldn’t be scared. Or Puck, who always protected me and never left me alone. Like Ram, who wished to do the one thing that would be the most helpful for someone who’s truly precious to her. Like Otto, who does his very best for his friends. Or Garfiel, who never once uttered a word of complaint. Like Subaru, who says he loves me, and does reckless things even when he’s wounded and hurting. I want to earn the respect of each of them. From now on, I want to be the one reaching out to help someone.”

It’s Emilia!

I don’t really have much to say about her in regards to what her powers or wish would be in relation to her design since in my au she hasn’t made a contract (yet… ;) and talking about it here would be spoilers lol), but what I can say is that I wanted her outfit to be very reminiscent of Madoka’s magical girl form (you know, for the Homura x Madoka / Subaru x Emilia parallel) (also some Satella elements like the roses because, you know :) ). I also took note of the spin-off magical girl event in the game Lost in memories where they have magical girl designs for some of the characters, and they happened to have one for Emilia, so I took a lot of inspiration from her outfit used there. Since the majority of y’all voted for her to have the main color in her outfit be white, I went with that for her top and boots and made most everything else a different shade of purple.

A quick aside, I really want to thank all of you who voted on the poll and gave positive comments/ feedback on not just the designs that I’ve made so far but on the art that I’ve been posting here since last year. I know saying this is cliché (and even saying it’s cliché is too) but it really does mean a lot seeing so many people like my art and my ideas. I have been posting art for a while now (on Instagram but I’m pretty new here so bear with me 😂) but I have never really seen as much engagement with my stuff as I have on other platforms and I’m really happy about that :) I have a hell of a lot more to make and show you not only about this au but in general, and I am so glad all of you will be able to see it and I hope you like it to. Thank you for everything so far!

Now with the sappy shit out of the way, I’ll go over a few last thoughts I had about Emilia’s weapon and soul gem.

I didn’t know what to give her for a weapon since in canon she makes a lot of her weapons out of ice, so I just decided to give her a typical magical girl wand/staff since I thought it would fit her and it’s what she wields in the Lost in Memories spin-off. I made the staff look similar to Madoka’s bow (again, parallels) with elements of the concept art for the magical girl rings in pmmm and of Madoka’s soul gem at the bottom. The crystal star shape on top of the wand is also a Madoka reference because it’s the same star on her grief seed and Law of cycles symbol / witch kiss. I also made it crystal sort of call back to Puck’s crystal.

Now for Emilia’s soul gem I made it look like a certain key that appeared in season two… It was based on the comment by a certain someone that said something along the lines of “imagine you are the key.”… This character is very important to this au not just in the world of Lugunica… :)

[faelapis]

pmmm rebellion: the flower scene

*inhales*

i like pmmm rebellion. a lot. i'd go so far as to say it’s one of my favorite movies. but i've never liked the interpretation from some, of this scene. the flower scene. essentially, the idea is that homura was right in how madoka was "miserable" as a god. because madoka "agreed with her" in the flower scene.

as a baseline, i will say right off the bat that i think pmmm is a franchise where you can never fully escape tragedy. i think any ending to this story will be bittersweet, and there is a certain amount of sacrifice and misery inherent in its very concept.

that being said. i don't think madoka becoming a god was as tragic as homura makes it out to be. i don't think its just a hero sacrificing herself for the greater good. i think it's more. and i think this scene, as much as it is a conversation, is also an act of self-delusion.

this one-note interpretation of madoka as a tragic sacrifice (in how she herself feels) is ignoring... well. the context of the whole series. which homura herself is also ignoring. by which i mean, she was a quite the unreliable narrator in how she described the sacrifice / miracle madoka would go on to perform.

for the record, i think there is something both selfish and selfless to homura. i think she genuinely believes she is helping madoka. and i think homura thinks that's all she wants. this is not an attempt to slander her - but more about how i think she has an incomplete understanding of madoka, and what madoka wants in life.

basically, i'm not trying to argue here that madoka's sacrifice is just good "for the world." obviously, it is. we already know that. what i'm trying to argue is that i think it - in some ways - is also good for madoka herself. not in an uncomplicated way, but that its not all bad. that she gets something out of being this godlike being. at the very least, i think it is better for madoka than the world homura creates.

okay. so. flower scene. homura pretty vaguely just says “you’re going to be separated from everyone you love." which, on its own, is pretty sad. she mentions that there's something "only (madoka) can do". and that madoka, being selfless, would do this because she feels she has to. that it is a tragedy.

what homura doesn't mention is madoka becoming this godlike, conceptual being who is everywhere at all times. which is a pretty big fucking thing to leave out. homura might as well have said “you’re going to be separate from ME, and that’s going to make ME sad” for how honest she was about the context of the situation.

in short, homura is framing the situation as tragically as possible because she wants madoka to say what she wants to hear. she wants to be told that it was miserable. because homura was miserable.

essentially, what homura says will happen: you'll be away from everyone forever. it will accomplish ~something~, but i will not tell you what. it will make me very sad. please comfort me. (which madoka does, because of course. lest we forget part of what she says is she would never want to make someone as strong as homura sad.)

what actually happens: you will have the power to save every magical girl from suffering. you will become a conceptual god, which will remove you from your human life. but you will also be with every magical girl, always, and give them comfort. you will not only have your own agency, but make sure that the wishes of magical girls everywhere MATTER and don't end in despair. including your own. even when you would become a witch and despair, you will save yourself. and when i die, i will be with you as well.

i think by framing it this way, homura IS being honest about how it "felt" to her. but homura also misunderstands what madoka wants.

first of all, madoka's life as a regular human... well, i'm not going to say it was unhappy. but i think it was unfulfilled. i think madoka was an insecure girl without much sense of what she wanted in life. and it was also ignorant. ignorant of the pain of the world, of the suffering that other magical girls had gone through. it was privileged, but it was also, in this way, empty.

madoka’s self-actualization (in the series) has a lot to do with helplessness vs being able to make a difference. in short, she wants agency. what her wish does is give her that agency, which she trades for her life as a normal human.

what homura’s wish does is the reverse. it’s giving madoka her humanity back, but in return, she no longer has agency. she doesn’t get to do the self-actualization of becoming someone with the power to help others. she is, in that sense, suppressed.

so. like. yes, THAT “regular magical girl who knows zero context of her own character arc” version of madoka? of COURSE she doesn’t want to leave everyone behind. big duh. she isn’t told what it would accomplish (in any specific terms), she isnt aware of how it would create a version of herself with the power to change the world. nor is she acquainted with the non-magical girl version of her in the pmmm series, who had no agency at all until she chose to become a god.

in the series, that is not a moment of despair for madoka. that is when she finds hope. that is when she attains a world where she can give rest to all magical girls. and give herself a reason to fight. that hope and determination carries her, and she is with it forever.

it’s also worth noting, rebellion!madoka's not just saying it would make her sad. she is also doubting herself. she's saying she is far “too spineless” to do it. how she's this weak, helpless person who would never be able to leave people for a greater calling.

putting aside how she’s not really gone / at least exists in this abstract way - she is also demonstrating how she doesn't believe in herself. so even this "happy" magical girl version of madoka still has some of the helpless insecurity of her series counterpart. she may live a relatively peaceful life, but she is not fulfilled. she lacks the purpose, determination and hope of her series counterpart.

in other words, even this version of madoka needs to self-actualize. and part of her knows that. in homura's "happy" new realm, madoka "feels wrong." she seems shy and insecure. ill at ease. uncomfortable. like she's at the start of her arc, not the end. yet the godlike power within her refuses to be erased. it can only be held back. for now.

in a way, i see homura trapping madoka a bit like the symbolism of not letting someone grow up. sure, adulthood might not be as "simple and happy" as childhood, but it also gives you knowledge and agency in life. it allows you to learn & grow, understand the world as it is, make educated choices in who you want to be, and become that best version of yourself. THAT is what madoka is denied. that is how she feels wrong in this “happy” illusion realm that homura creates.

also. god madoka would definitely be a lot happier if she could be with homura in heaven and have the ability to save her lol.

but there's a problem with that, for homura. and that problem is, that would give madoka the agency in the situation, and leave homura the passive receiver of blessings. which is at odds with homura’s own desire for control. like madoka, she wants to not be helpless and have the ability to affect the story. after all, she did fail to stop madoka in the series. i think homura wants some of that agency, too. hence the imagery of her soul gem going from a pawn to a queen.

essentially, i see this as a conflict between two sides who want to be in charge of their own destinies. they've been stripped of their agency by the world, and they want to have it back - no matter what it would cost. this is what they have in common.

when homura refused to join madoka in "magical girl heaven", she was ultimately refusing happiness for the sake of agency. for the sake of being able to be "madoka's hero." that's what she always wanted to be, and failed to be in the original series.

tl;dr: there is something tragic in madoka's wish. for sure. but i think it gives madoka agency in the world, which she always wanted. i think being able to help others can be genuinely fulfilling for the individual, rather than just a sacrifice. it’s empowering, as much as it is the loss of old self. and i think homura wants to feel like that kind of hero, too - no matter what. they both do.

*exhales*

[guided-by-stars]

Do you like ISAT? ⭐️ Are you looking for more media to get into? Did you stumble across this post because you’re into one of the other projects mentioned here? (If yes, play In Stars in Time!!)

I’ll be dividing this up into sections based on the content in various Acts, so spoilers for each individual section below! I’ll be trying to avoid as much spoilers as possible for the other projects referenced here, for obvious reasons, but some concepts and thematic threads will be mentioned in order to give context.

This isn't a complete list, I'm sure I'll think of some perfect things to add here after I've posted it...Also sorrry most of these are video games.

Long post, so it'll be under a cut (But PLEASE PLEASE take a quick glance at the visuals/pictures I've provided and see if anything looks cool!)

If you’ve played up to Acts 1 & 2:

⋆ ˚｡⋆౨ৎ˚ Madoka Magica ⋆౨ৎ˚⋆ ˚｡

Okay, this one's a little obvious if you know a bit of anything about both of these. It's definitely the most well known piece of media on this list. Puella Magi Madoka Magica, also known as PMMM or Madoka Magica, is a magical girl show. Directed by Akiyuki Shinbo & Yukihiro Miyamoto and produced by Magica Quartet, it centers around magical girls who have to battle witches, and only gain their powers through contracts with an alien being. This also gives them one wish. ***MINOR spoilers for Act 4 of ISAT, skip if needed...Wishes, huh? Powerful and dangerous wishes, huh?***

The writing has a lot of depth to it, the bonds between the characters are interesting, and the narrative weight they have placed on their shoulders to save the world...well!

I have an important other reason why ISAT fans may really enjoy this series, but it would spoil a lot of the series... so first, some visuals, because this show is beautiful.

Okay, now spoilers for Episode 10. These are pretty big spoilers, so avoid if you care about that sort of thing. I don't personally think it ruins the series to know about beforehand, but you do lose some of the surprise. ***Spoilers for Ep. 10 of PMMM, skip if needed: Well! It's a timeloop show. Specifically a timeloop centering one person who's terrified of loosing the person they love and prone to obsession.***

You can watch it on Crunchyroll, or you could watch it illegally on a few different pirating sites, it's not exactly obscure. There's the series, but also multiple movies. There's also a new movie coming out in 2025! Exciting!

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ 1BitHeart ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

1bitheart, created by Miwashiba and produced by PLAYISM, is a ?visual novel? I suppose. There are other mechanics besides just talking to people (mystery solving, gifting, walking), but that's the best way I can describe it. In 1bitheart, you experience the world through Nanashi's eyes, a severely agoraphobic guy. I feel like if you like Siffrin, you'll probably find him interesting. Honestly, I don't have much more to say here...just that the vibes of this game feel like something many ISAT fans might enjoy.

If you like dialogue and character building, then maybe give it a look! There's one more spoilery reason why you might find it interesting, but it's a major spoiler for BOTH games...so. I'll leave that for you to discover.

Visuals:

You can buy 1bitheart here:

☆ The Endless Empty ☆

The Endless Empty, created by Erik Sheader-Smith, is another artistic RPG game with themes of suicidality, imagery of stars, and a fascinating battle system. It's very...scrapbook diary nightmare anatomical textbook, if that makes sense. It's short, inexpensive, obscure, and delightful, in my opinion. Guys. This is good.

Visuals:

Buy it here:

𓐟◇ OFF ◇𓐟

I see a lot of people around who are into both ISAT and OFF!, which I find supremely unsurprising. Both are created by French devs (OFF by Mortis Ghost), steeped in that background, unique RPG battle system (many enemies in this game are basically Sadnesses), limited palette (and often black & white) and [killed for spoilers].

I find the translation writing fascinating, personally. There's a lot you can dig out of here.

Visuals:

Get it here:

๑ï🌧Mr Rainer’s Solve-It Service🌧๑ï

Easily the most obscure game on this list, Mr Rainer's, created by Etherane, is an incredible game that's more of a visual novel than a text based adventure. The worldbuilding of the story is fascinating, and the characters are compelling. The story ends with SO MANY unanswered questions and mysteries, which is another reason why it fascinates me so.

Like ISAT, Mr Rainer's is a game pretty much entirely in black, white, and red, about an amnesiac hooded figure who doesn't remember their past and is INCREDIBLY fucking hungry constantly, a story with multiple endings, a story about identity and belonging and being the only one of your kind in a strange land, a story about grief and life and touch and connection and cycles of pain...

Please give it a chance, I have absolutely nobody to talk to about this game. It's only 5 hours and it's only (around) five dollars...

Visuals:

You can get it here!:

If you’ve played the whole game + 2Hats (DO NOT READ ON IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE 2HATS!!! I AM WARNING YOU!!!):

⚂ ⊹.🂱 Yugioh (Specifically the Toei series and Duel Monsters)⊹. 🂱 ⚂

Well! Here it is! The series about friendship, "other you's", "you see everything I do and you know how my body reacts to things", "you’re me but also not me but also another me but also you’re NOTHING like me", "facade sees facade in the eyes and Knows" and [spoilers for Yugioh redacted].

Guys if you don't gaf about card games, in the Toei series they are an extremely small aspect of the show and other games (like Tamagotchi) are similarly important!

It's got a fucked up by grief and trauma guy who does morally grey stuff and is fixated on his own past and really does just deep down Want to be Useful!! It's also got a codependent protector who really needs to be protected! It's got GAMES!!! SO MANY GAMES!!! and DRAMA!

Visuals:

(Toei)

(Duel Monsters)

Watch Toei series here: (WARNING!! THE EPISODES ARE NOT IN ORDER! BE CAREFUL!)

You can watch Duel Monsters many places, both legally and illegally.

⟳⏱︎ Start Again, duh! ⏱︎⟳

If you've only played ISAT but not Start Again (You know who the dev is...), you might think there's little of value there besides additional dialogue, but you'd be entirely wrong. Not only is this LOOP's story (and valuable to examine because of that), but the House is quite different, there's unique art, and there's different endings as well. PLAY START AGAIN START AGAIN START AGAIN: A PROLOGUE!!! YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT!

Visuals:

Get it here:

✧♥ Hello Charlotte series ♥✧

Hello Charlotte, also created by Etherane, is an incredible series, and one of the three most impactful game series I've ever encountered. The amount of unexpected developments that happen...I couldn't possibly understand where the game was going until everything clicked at once. Personally I think it's a masterpiece of storytelling.

Another artistic RPG maker game- so of course the art is beautiful. There's a battle system...in one of the games...yeah it's rudimentary. It's more of an exploration/puzzle game than anything. It's more of a STORY than anything. I would really really really hate to spoil this game, but what I will say, is there's a reason why I put it in the 2hats section. A very good reason. Pleaseee check it out it's so much content for so incredibly cheap. Criminally cheap. You will become incredibly attached to Charlotte.

Visuals:

Get the first game here (name your price!):

EP 2:

EP 3:

[curetapwater]

Madoka Magica is a very dark show but I think it often gets kinda blown outta proportion, as if it's some bloodbath just because it has onscreen deaths and dark subject matter. I'd say the violence itself is rather on par with darker episodes of Sailor Moon. Deaths happen, but it's far from a gore fest. Mami's death in episode 3, one of the most gruesome scenes in the show, is carefully framed to show no blood, no gore. The image of her body going limp and detransforming, the ribbons she'd tied up Homura with dissolving, the wide shot so far from her body that you can hardly make it out as it falls to the ground for Charlotte to finish. The focus is not "ouuuuuuu teenage girl death SCARY SCARY" but on the weight of the events unfolding. And her death is not there just for shock value, but to drop a sudden, crushing weight upon the characters she is survived by. The scene where Madoka visits Mami's apartment one last time in particular is so effective. A sink filled with dishes that will never be washed. A half-full teacup that will never be emptied. Her absence is a gaping hole in the characters' lives as much as it is a reminder of the stakes of the situation.

And other onscreen deaths are as clean as possible. The Soul Gem thing is existentially terrifying but it also lends itself to something about how PMMM handles its darkest scenes with a certain tastefullness. We don't need to watch a 14-year-old girl get ripped apart in order to understand how fucked things are. We just need to see her soul itself shatter, the light leave her eyes, her body go limp. The lack of traditionally graphic imagery allows weight to be shifted from what we are seeing to what the events unfolding mean.

One of the most visceral scenes for me is the one where Kyubey just dumps his reasoning for the magical girl system on her. On its surface, it's just a girl sitting in bed, being spoken to by an alien creature. But it's the shit he says to her. The way he talks about commodifying, using, tormenting teenage girls across human history as if it's a perfectly reasonable, pleasant conversation. The way he compares humans to livestock. The way his cheerful tone never falters as Madoka's emotional state deteriorates further and further. And GOD, the shot where she slowly grabs her head, curls in on herself before bending backwards. Just trying to process the weight of a system that extends far beyond her, across the whole world, across human history. The helplessness of it all. The way it all culminates, as the audience and Madoka herself finally understand Kyubey to be a microcosm of the way the world is stacked against young girls. That single shot rocks me to my core.

I think people who label this show "torture porn" severely miss the point. We aren't supposed to root for all the bad things happening to these characters. We aren't supposed to point and go "Haha! Foolish girls and their frivolous dreams!!" nor are we supposed to wallow in misery and cry out "Woe! The dreams of young girls are all for naught!! Hope is lost!!!" We're supposed to sympathize and connect with them. And hell if I do. I'm so glad I first watched this show when I was the same age as the characters, because this show just really speaks to me. There is a great catharsis, to me, in things like Mami's veneer of being the cool perfect girl that she desperately doesn't want to fall to reveal the vulnerable girl beneath, the way Sayaka desperately wants to save the world but jumps into things without thinking and pours from an empty cup, the way Kyoko has seemingly given up entirely on being a good person but deep down still believes that something good must exist out there, Homura's determination to try again. And again. And again. Until her love consumes her and everyone around her. And Madoka's crushing sense of helplessness, of guilt, of wanting to make the world a better place, of wanting everyone to just!!!! Get along!!!!! Please!!!!!!! And the way she overcomes this sense of helplessness with the main theme that the magical girl genre was built upon to begin with: hope.

To me, Madoka Magica is a show about how much it can absolutely suck to be a teenage girl, but in a respectful way, y'know? It's about how the world is stacked against young girls, how it uses and objectifies them and kicks them into the dirt, and how because they're still young, they often don't respond to the hand dealt to them in perfect ways. But that doesn't mean their feelings, their hopes and dreams and very souls, do not matter. If anything, I'd say Madoka Magica is about how the world isn't going to go easy on you, and your feelings about that fact are real, even if you don't respond to them perfectly. But despite it all, you have to keep going.

So yeah PMMM is a dark show but I feel like its discussion is often like "this show KILLED the magical girl genre by being DARK and VIOLENT" like. Siigh. Especially frustrating because I see this sentiment both from magical girl fans who resent the show and non-magical girl fans who laud the show because they think it's "better" than its predecessors. Maybe it had an impact on the genre in the same way that Shrek was an excellent movie whose success unfortunately gave way to trends in animated films that didn't quite get what made Shrek work. But I find it unfair to say PMMM "ruined" or even "killed" the magical girl genre. I'm unsure if I'd even call it a deconstruction, it's just its own neat thing to me. I can go back and watch Sailor Moon or Pretty Cure without feeling they've been tainted or taken down a peg. If anything, I think PMMM complements more traditional magical girl shows very nicely. I think Madoka and Usagi would love each other. I don't think a magical girl show where very bad things happen is that big a deal. What is a big deal, to me, is how excellent it is in its execution.

[miraclecereal]

Walpurgis Rising Trailer Analysis

So this is basically my magical girl blog so I had to make this. I’ve loved pmmm for so long and I had a mini heart attack when I saw the trailer was out. Spoilers for pmmm, Rebellion, and the Wraith Arc ahead. 

Here’s the trailer if you haven’t seen it already: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TGxyrO-27dQ&pp=ygULYW5pcGxleCB1c2E%3D

General Speculation:

So let’s start with everyone’s main speculation. Most people who watch the trailer believe that in this new world Homura created, she’s the one who created magical girls, which I also believe. In the beginning of the trailer Homura says: 

“Can you accept the risks and responsibilities?”

Before she says this a phone can be heard ringing which comes from where her soul gem should be. This means that Kyubey is no longer in charge of wish granting and or choosing magical girls. 

One thing that I find interesting is that the Clara Dolls (Homura’s familiars) call her “Akuma Sama” or “Devil” if you watched the trailer with the subtitles. 

I believe this shows that Homura is taking the role of Kyubey. If magical girls are being chosen by Homura like we speculate, it means that they are literally making a deal with the “devil.” 

Even in the Wraith Arc when things were significantly better there was still a cycle of hope and despair with magical girls still having the risk of getting their feelings eaten by wraiths. Homura’s world still needs despair in it, meaning that being meguca is still suffering. In fact, it might be Homura’s way of punishing Mami, Sayaka, and Kyoko.

Homura’s New World: 

This versions of Homura’s world seems a lot more stable than Rebellion since it’s no longer a controlled environment. Homura has full control and self awareness of what she’s doing. 

One of the shots we get of this new world is a shot of Madoka, Sayaka, and Hitomi presumably walking to school. They are surrounded by flowers with light shining down on them. I believe this is supposed to represent the world that Homura wanted to create for Madoka: A place that’s beautiful and carefree. Even in the trailer Homura says: “This world is for Madoka.”

Then we got shots of how Homura and the other magical girls might see the world. It looks heavily industrial with the sky being filled with reds and oranges. 

This can show that Madoka is most likely in the dark about what’s really going on around her, at least in the beginning. 

Magical girls (and their outfits) 

If Homura is the one granting wishes and choosing magical girls, I believe that the change in outfits has to do with how Homura sees Mami, Sayaka, and Kyoko. 

Mami’s new outfit is similar to her old one in a lot of ways but the change is most definitely noticeable. Her outfit looks a lot more free flowing and focused more on the fashionable aspect of magical girl outfits. 

Homura has always seen Mami as the mature leader. Along with Madoka, she was the first magical she meant and in the other timelines she’s the one that coaches Homura and teaches her how to use her abilities. It’s even speculated that Homura chose guns as her weapon because of Mami. 

It doesn’t look like Kyoko’s outfit changed that much. Her soul gem does look bigger but that could be intentional or just a design choice. 

From I can see, it looks like there’s a black undershirt underneath the top piece of her outfit but that doesn’t give us much for symbolism.

If you look at her gloves it looks like Sayaka with the gold band around the edge. This could show her connection to Sayaka. 

What’s most noticeable is her hair that still appears long but seems a lot more spiky. This could represent Homura seeing Kyoko as a tomboy and exaggerating that concept.

The reason why I think Kyoko’s outfit didn’t change much is because worked good together and that Homura sees her in a better light than she does Mami and Sayaka who she believes are constantly getting in her way. Kyoko was the one Homura went to when she needed a teammate: Wanting her to help with  Walpurgisnacht in the original and Homura reaching out to her in Rebellion.

I saved Sayaka for last because she has a lot going on. The bandages on her face and her cape looking more like a coat looks like it could reflect her wish of healing Kyosuke and all the time he spent in the hospital. It also goes along with her ability of healing. 

Sayaka is heavily covered up with the cape, bandages, long sleeve, and gloves. This could be seen as Sayaka disguising herself or hiding who she really is like in Rebellion. 

If you have seen the concept movie trailer, Sayaka looks different but one similarity is having something cover her mouth. This could represent secrecy or Homura trying to silence Sayaka. 

Homura has always had problems with Sayaka. Such as Sayaka accusing her of different things in different time lines such as working with Kyoko, trying to blow her up with bombs, and lying about magical girls turning into witches. In Rebellion, Sayaka was the one who called Homura out and actually stood a threat to her. 

If Homura is making magical girls I feel like it’s possible she could be going out of her way to punish Sayaka which is really tragic. I think it’s obvious that Sayaka is my favorite character. 

The New Magical Girl: 

In the trailer we are shown what could potentially be a new magical girl. 

This new magical girl is shown to wield Homura’s bow but also have abilities similar to Mami with what looks like red ribbons. Her outfit also looks similar to Homura’s but she has a light hair color in a ponytail. 

My personal theory is that this magical girl represents Walpurgisnacht. Walpurgisnacht is an amalgamation of witches which could show why she’s seen using different weapons and abilities of other magical girls. 

The trailer describes Walpurgisnacht as a “fool who goes around in circles” which represents both Homura and Madoka. Both of them were affected by karmic destiny as the clock kept turning. This new magical girl could be the aftermath of messing with karmic destiny. 

Dang this is long. Maybe I’ll make a second part of this that focuses more on Kyubey, Madoka, and Homura.

[atamascolily]

Rebellion is, among many other things, taking something that fans wanted from the original PMMM anime, namely the girls fighting as a team in a more conventional magical girl style against more conventional monsters of the week, and serving it up in a world where everything is beautiful and nothing hurts--only to reveal that it was all a dream of Homura's that she created as a coping mechanism to deal with suicidal levels of despair. Which leads me to wonder what exactly Walpurgis no Kaiten might do along similar lines... and, given the marketing thus far, I think it's going to interrogate Homura's character--specifically, the varying fan interpretations of her based on her actions at the end of Rebellion.

By which I mean, you know all the fan arguments that "Homura is a selfish monster" and "Homura did nothing wrong" that have been going on ever since Rebellion was released? I think what Urobuchi et al. is going to do is give us a version of Homura who is just as bad as some people think she always was--a ruthless, cruel, vindictive, remorseless overdramatic bitch who manipulates people for her own amusement/goals (including/especially her other self!)--and a Homura who is "innocent" but nonetheless forced to face the consequences of her actions independent of their morality, and put them directly in conflict with each other and the rest of the cast. Homura will be forced to confront herself at her worst, and she won't enjoy it one bit.

But if this is the case, then the twist (because there's always a twist) will ultimately reveal that these two Homuras are, on some fundamental level the same and always have been; that in the end, all people are a mix of good and bad, and it's the act of splitting/separation/doubling/mirroring/projection/demonizing itself that is the real problem. Only by acknowledging this truth about herself and accepting herself as she truly is, for better and for worse can Homura be fully whole--and hopefully healed from the terrible self-loathing that has plagued her ever since her first chronological appearance in the narrative.

In other words, just as Madoka said in Rebellion, "Homura is Homura no matter what" (my emphasis). I think Walpurgis no Kaiten is going to explore just how far that last part goes--and just how far Madoka's love and compassion (and our own!) extends.

Do I think the outcome will be worth it? Yes, but it will likely take us to some very dark and uncomfortable places first. "Be careful what you wish for, you might get it" applies just as much to the audience as it does to the characters in this series.